The Exiles Galway

For Heritage week, Westport Estate invited us to do a public HEMA demonstration. We had a great day and there are now a lot of kids pestering their parents for swords for Christmas 😆

Can't wait for this! Delighted to be asked back to Bladeworks. See you there.

We've been a bit busy the last few weeks, but back on track with Bladeworks 2025 announcements! Next up for instructors is Tom Gorman from The Exiles Galway!

Fiore's Longsword: Not just a bag of tricks

In this workshop, we will tackle a couple of the common misconceptions of Fiore's art. Firstly, that Fiore's longsword is just a bag of tricks, and secondly, that Fiore is just a grappler*. We will explore Fiore's posta and master battle through the four sections of sword; one handed, largo, stretto, and armoured, to demonstrate that Fiore teaches one system throughout the manuscript and that it can be used to good effect in your sparring.

You will need a mask, gloves, and sword as a minimum. Jackets are advised, but are not compulsory. Those of you with longer feders are likely to discover why we use shorter longswords.

* Product may still contain traces of grappling

Instructor Bio:

Tom Gorman has been practicing HEMA since 2012 and has been with The Exiles for just over ten of those years. He came for the longsword, but stayed for the dagger. Then the pole weapons were the icing on the cake. Tom opened the first Exiles club outside the UK back in 2017 and studying Fiore's art takes up a good chunk of his spare time.

When he's not teaching HEMA, he's in the field working on an ecological restoration project in Co. Mayo, or teaching in the geography department at the University of Galway. He is especially fond of plants and pasties and has been known to accept payment in custard creams. Tom apologises in advance for what his accent does to the Italian language.

Keeping a good thing going!

Another full hall last Wednesday, looking at the use of posta longa in both dagger and the sword in one hand.

Excellent to see more women getting involved in martial arts!

Packed hall last night! 16 of us in there, practicing grappling, posta, and footwork.

Great atmosphere and a solid effort put in by all.

Its just a sword. One handed, two handed, half-sword - theyre all part of the fight. #TheExiles #Carlisle #Fioredeiliberi #HEMA #Medieval #Fiore #Knight #martialarts #medievalcombat #cumbria #Cumberland #historicaleuropeanmartialarts #15thcentury #Sword #longsword #spada #battle #flowerofbattle #halfsword #armoured #armored

In our last class, we spent the first hour on getting to a grapple from striking and then taking someone to ground with a thigh throw.

The second half we worked on making an incrossada from different posta, especially focusing on using back weighted stances and the footwork involved.